Main image: the residence where two girls were confined by their father in Wichita, Kansas. (Google Maps); inset: Thomas Gatewood is shown in a booking photo (Wichita Police Department).
A dad in Kansas has been found guilty of fatally stomping his 8-year-old daughter last spring.
Thomas Ross Gatewood, 52, pleaded no contest to nine charges, including felony first-degree murder, two kidnapping charges, three counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated child endangerment, and one count of aggravated intimidation of a witness.
Initially facing 11 charges, he was also accused of child abuse.
Warning: extreme child abuse
On May 8, 2023, Jeanetta Yvonne Gatewood, 8, was found unresponsive and not breathing at her family’s home on North Oliver Street in Wichita. She was declared dead at the scene. Her father was arrested by the Wichita Police Department in late June 2023.
A formal complaint obtained by the Wichita-based NBC affiliate KSNW provides only basic details about the terrible case, stating that the defendant “unlawfully and knowingly tortured, cruelly beat, cruelly struck, or cruelly kicked a child.”
The complaint also alleged that Gatewood “unlawfully took or confined a person, namely Jeanetta Y Gatewood, using force, threat, or deception, with the intent to cause bodily harm or terrorize her or someone else, and did indeed harm Jeanetta Y Gatewood.”
Later reports provided more information about the grim situation.
According to prosecutors, Gatewood had been abusing and torturing Jeanetta and her older sister for months, possibly years, before May 2023.
Despite moving into the house on North Oliver in 2018, Gatewood managed to keep the girls so isolated that even the neighbors were unaware he had children, authorities said, as per The Wichita Eagle.
. The girls did not go to school and had never seen a doctor or dentist since birth. Gatewood instilled fear in them by telling them they could catch COVID-19 or be poisoned by fentanyl. They were frequently confined to their rooms.
Abuse in the home was widespread, and it turned deadly when the defendant stomped on Jeanetta so forcefully that her heart ruptured.
An autopsy revealed that the girl had been consistently beaten throughout her short life, according to Hutchinson-based CBS affiliate KWCH. Jeanetta had a broken leg, broken ribs, head injuries, and other injuries that were in the process of healing but had not healed properly because her father would not allow her to see a doctor. The children were kept concealed, at least in part, to hide the abuse.
According to a courtroom report by KSNW, on Thursday, prosecutor Alice Osburn also presented evidence that Jeanetta was underweight, had been whipped, and was covered in bruises and scars.
The other Gatewood girl had a similar situation, as claimed by prosecutors. They say that after she was taken to the hospital, Jeanetta’s older sister was discovered to have a broken pelvis, spine, ribs, and teeth. She had also been whipped, confined, and threatened with more abuse if she ever spoke up.
The defendant allegedly told his oldest daughter, “If you ever tell, I will beat you up.”
According to the Eagle, Gatewood also attempted to make the older girl confess that she was responsible for Jeanetta’s death. The father wanted his surviving daughter to make up a story about hitting her sister in the face with a hardcover book and causing her to fall and hit her head — but she refused. The truth eventually came out when Jeanetta’s sister was taken into protective custody.
According to the Eagle, Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering and the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office agreed to drop child abuse charges and various other pending charges in another case in exchange for the no-contest plea.
The defendant has several active rape, sodomy, and child sex crimes charges, according to Sedgwick County Jail records.
Gatewood could be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder charge, along with over 20 years for the additional charges. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for April 25.